Caister Lifeboat Station

Introduction

The photograph on this page of Caister Lifeboat Station by Clyde F. H. Baker as part of the Geograph project.

The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk

Caister Lifeboat Station

Image: © Clyde F. H. Baker Taken: Unknown

This is a picture of the Caister Lifeboat Station and the vessel Royal Thames taken in August 1964 only a few months after she was taken on strength. In 1969 the RNLI decided to close the station holding a record of 1814 lives saved, the highest of any station at that time. However because of the proud tradition of lifeboat men in Caister they refused to accept this and opened Caister Volunteer Lifeboat Service as soon as the RNLI withdrew. The saddest time for this station was in 1901 when the lifeboat Beauchamp with 146 lives saved to her credit capsized during a rescue killing all but 3 of her crew. At the inquest council suggested to James Haylett (coxswain 1887-1900) that the lifeboat was heading back to shore. Haylett’s repost was précised by the press as “CAISTER MEN NEVER TURN BACK” the abiding principle of the Caister Lifeboat to this day. The full History of the station can be found at http://www.caisterlifeboat.org.uk/history/index.php see the memorial at Image N.B I wasn’t an infant prodigy my older brother took the photo!

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0

Image Location

coordinates on a map icon
Latitude
52.645922
Longitude
1.734107